Monthly Archives: February 2012

Few of us who comment on the climate debate know the science involved, but there is more to it than just the science. Claiming to be “beyond left and right” I lean towards a lot of economic thought, but one…

Arnold King writes in The American, Economics: A Million Mutinies Now, 2/27/12. Excerpt: The conspiracy theorists and behavioral economists appeal to those who dislike economics. As economists, we remind people of some unpleasant truths. Such unpleasant truths are deserving of…

From the Weekly Standard, Why the Climate Skeptics Are Winning Too many of their opponents are intellectual thugs. Excerpts: Turns out the greens take in much more money from fossil fuel interests than the skeptics do. The Gleick episode exposes…

The GM bailout is touted as a huge success for progressive government bailout of failed capitalist ideology. None of the GOP candidates seem capable of challenging this view. Everything comes at a cost and the cost of this bailout is…

Ideology has developed a negative connotation, stemming from what is perceived to be a blind sighted belief in a set of ideas that are held in disrepute by the opposition. At dictionary.com (American Heritage) one definition is: “the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group.” At…

Matt Miller writes in the Washington Post, The Missing Contraception Question, 2/22/12. Excerpts: It’s important not to let this contraception clash pass without understanding the true source of the problem. It’s not President Obama’s debauched liberal drive to shower teens with…

While teaching at Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter organized an informal seminar with like minded thinkers called the Seven Wise Men. They published a piece attacking the New Deal of FDR: Recovery is sound only if it does come of itself.…

From Investor’s Business Daily Eric Singer writes If Economy’s Improving, Why Is Dependency Growing? Excerpts: How can we have falling unemployment and falling labor force participation at the same time? I heard a story a while ago about a woman…

The emergence of the scientific method ran into the beliefs of the church and was often treated as heresy. Skeptics of anthropomorphic global warming are treated the same by the powered elite who seek not a fight for truth but a…

The editors write in the Wall Street Journal, Manufacturing Decline- Obama, Santorum and the political allocation of capital, Feb 17, 2012. Excerpt: Real manufacturing output stood at about $35,000 per worker in 1947, in constant dollars. It doubled by 1980 as…

By emphasizing the local business environment instead of natural resources, Schumpeter’s theory suggested that nations made their own destinies. Government that wished to see their citizens prosper should give up territorial ambitions and focus on fostering a favorable business climate-…

You can not help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you…

Daniel Hannan writes in the UK The Telegraph with Memo to the Occupy Protesters: here are ten things we evil capitalists really think. Point 3: If you want the rich to pay more, create a flatter and simpler tax system.…

One of the themes I seem to revisit most often is how the intelligent among us screw up so often. When a candidate is heavily promoted because of his or her intelligence above other characteristics, it makes me want to…

Stephen Moore hits one out of the park in the Wall Street Journal in A Fairness Quiz for the President, 2/7/12. Excerpts: Is it fair that the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes, and…

It is interesting to note the response to the president invoking the name of Jesus to justify higher taxes on the wealthier Americans. It seems that those who act horrified at the use of Christian references in the political discourse…